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As many as a half-million Swiss in this country of 7.8 million cross the borders for bargains at least once a month, costing the economy close to $3.86 billion a year, said Thomas Rudolph, a professor of marketing and retail management at the University of St. Gallen.

"It's really a very, very serious moment for some of those retailers," said Mr. Rudolph, the professor at St. Gallen. "Some of the stores will be killed. Probably the smaller ones. If you're near the border, and the price difference was 10 percent, and now it's 30 percent - it's not going to work."